Rambles about stuff I like.

More about Rob Ager (And a tale about a chick at the gym.)

So today in the gym, I was on the dip machine and resting in between sets. The dip machine is right by the gym mats, so I’m next to a bunch of people who are stretching and such. But there was one chick who was doing nothing but standing on her tippie toes and checking out her butt.

Not even kidding – she would position her back to the mirror, go up on tippie toes, look over one shoulder and sorta wiggle her butt to see how it looked.

Naturally, I couldn’t help but notice… In my view, if your exercises consists of checking out how your butt looks in the mirror, it’s not my fault if I stare.

Anyhoo, couple days ago I was talking about Rob Ager and his film analysis. He’s mainly done a bunch of analysis on Kubrick films – and those analyses are fascinating, because there’s so many little things in all of Kubrick’s films that it’s super easy to miss stuff, even after repeated viewings.

One theory he had was about the monolith from 2001. Ager’s idea is that the monolith is the exact dimensions of a movie screen (widescreen, the kind in theaters.) And then the monolith represents man’s ability to move through a narrative… or something, I’m not too sure I caught the gist of that one.

But he explained the ending sequence – or his version of the ending sequence – was about how man can’t escape the narrative he’s in. (Again, or something… I may easily be misremembering stuff here.) And so when Bowman goes through the monolith, it represents his effort to escape his narrative… but then he ends up in that little room, where he goes from young man to old man to super-old-nearly-dead man. And when the old man breaks the glass on the table, it’s supposed to represent a break in the narrative…

Yeah.. I’m almost certain that’s probably misremembered. Here’s a link so you can watch it.

Another one of his interesting analyses pertains to A Clockwork Orange. And how the plot of clockwork orange symbolizes man’s struggle against tyranny and fascism. (There’s some other stuff about colour and the European Union, but I was only half-paying attention to that one.)

So, in A Clockwork Orange, the protagonist, Alex and his gang (of droogs) get into a fight with some punks in an abandoned theatre. As it happens, the punks are all wearing Nazi or German WWII paraphernalia. And so Alex and his gang beat up the Nazi gang and this represents man’s ability to triumph over fascism.

Later on in the movie, when Alex is getting the Ludivico treatment, a bunch of Nazi symbolism is flashed across the screen. For awhile, Alex is affected by the Ludivico treatment – nausea when he feels violent, that sorta thing. But by the end of the movie, Alex has overcome the Ludivico treatment – and this also represents man’s ultimate ability to triumph over tyranny.

Now, I should probably close by saying this is almost certainly misconstrued, and that I’m misremembering things or confusing Ager’s film analysis with other stuff that I’ve read. So I’ll give you another link to Ager’s analysis: A Clockwork Orange.

However, here’s a warning: If you’re into film analysis, you will eventually end up watching all of his videos. Some are short and sweet – some (like the analysis of The Warriors) are over an hour long. But each and every one is thought provoking.